In which a piece of parchment is found
by GloriaScientia
Summary: Weapons of mischief never stay hidden for long... one shot


Lily peered quickly down the corridor to check that the coast was clear before ducking into her father's study. Once inside she immediately began to struggle with his large desk chair, pushing it towards the cabinet where he had hidden her toy wand, she'd staked out the room everyday since he'd taken it and was confident of her plan. Climbing up onto the chair, she stretched up until she could _just_ manage to reach the handle. It was locked, but she'd anticipated that. Carefully, she withdrew her brother's wand from her pocket.

"Alohalmora" she whispered, pointing the wand at the lock. She'd practiced this spell over and over on her toy chest and the lock opened first time. But she didn't have long to celebrate, hearing the squeak of her mother's footsteps on the stairs. Hurriedly she threw the door open and snatched the first things she got her hand on before slamming it shut again and running back to her room before she got caught.

From the safety of her bed, Lily critically examined her haul. In front of her lay the confiscated toy wand, a joke telescope that belonged to her brother and a dirty old piece of parchment.

"What's so special about you?" demanded the girl, glaring at the piece of paper in front of her. It had to have been locked in that cabinet for a reason.

Lily looked at her toy wand, it seemed rather a lot less interesting since she'd got it back and she was keen to do some more real magic. Grinning mischievously, she picked up her brother's wand once more. "Reveal yourself" she commanded imperiously, tapping the wand against the parchment.

Nothing happened at first, but then words slowly began to resolve themselves across the page...

_Mr Prongs demands to know the identity of whomever it is that is being so presumptuous._

They said. Lily stared in amazement. "My name is Lily Potter" she whispered and the parchment reacted immediately, new words forming in lines down the page.

_Mister Wormtail would like to register his shock._

_Mister Padfoot concurs with Mr Wormtail and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mister Prongs on being a dirty, dirty dog._

_Mister Prongs should like to inform Misers Wormtail and Padfoot that he would hit them if not for the presence of the venerable Lily. Not to mention their lack of physical form._

Lily giggled.

_Mister Moony would like to ask Miss Potter if he does in fact detect a lisp._

"Yeah," said Lily, "My tooth fell out. It's under my pillow now, waiting for the tooth fairy. Of course, Aunty Luna says that it's actually drixens that take children's teeth and that they use them for building tiny castles in the garden, but I think she's a bit silly..." Lilly broke off as new words appeared on the parchment.

_Mister Padfoot withdraws his previous congratulations and rebukes Mister Prongs on being a cradle snatcher._

_Mister Prongs would like to rebuke Mister Padfoot on being an idiot._

_Mister Moony does inform Mister Padfoot and Mister Prongs that they are in fact both idiots and would do well to shut up._

_Mister Wormtail concurs with Mister Moony's statement, however is also of the opinion that Mister Moony says "in fact" far too often._

"Lilly? Are you in there?" called James from the door.

Lilly rolled off her bed and onto the floor before crawling under the desk. She didn't want James to find her, not seeing as how she'd 'borrowed' his wand. The door swung open, James looked around, but not very hard and, failing to spot his sister, left in silence.

"Sorry," whispered Lily, "That was my brother James, I didn't want him to find me because I well, I'm not really supposed to be using his wand"

_Mister Prongs congratulates Miss Lilly on carrying out such excellent mischief at such a young and tender age._

_Mister Padfoot wonders exactly how many Potters they're expected to meet today._

"Oh none more at all" assured Lily, "I found you in the locked cabinet in Daddy's room, I'll be in big trouble if anyone finds out that I took you"

_Mr Prongs thoroughly approves._

Lily was very impressed with this new find and chatted to it all morning (the toy wand lay forgotten). So much was she distracted by it however, that she failed to notice the entrance of her mother to the bedroom.

"Lily. What do you have there?" Ginny asked

Lily span around, hiding the parchment behind he back, but not quickly enough that her mother had failed to see. Ginny snatched the paper back out of her hand just in time to see words disappearing quickly back into the paper. Her blood ran cold.

With the speed that only a worried mother can muster, she snatched Lily away from the offending object and called the boys, whisking all three children downstairs where she sat them in the living room.

"What's going on?" demanded Albus

"No clue" said James.

Ginny shushed the both of them and knelt down in front of Lily. "Now sweetheart," she stroked her daughters hair, "I need you to tell me where you found the parchment"

Lily pursed her lips and pouted. She wasn't going to tell.

"Please darling. I won't be angry, I promise" Ginny tried to keep her voice calm and soothing but it was difficult, "Mummy really needs to know"

Lily muttered something inaudible.

"What was that sweety?"

"It was in the locked cabinet in Daddy's study" she mumbled.

Fury ran through Ginny, _how many times had she told him not to bring things home from the office?_

"How did you open the cabinet sweetheart?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"I used James' wand and Alohalmora"

"Hey!" exclaimed James, but Ginny wasn't listening. Something silvery shot out of her wand and out the window. Lily watched it go with wonder.

A few minutes later, their father apparated into the living room.

"Harry James Potter! You are in significant trouble!" shouted Ginny, "Do you know what your children found in that study of yours?"

Harry looked utterly baffled, but Ginny performed the summoning charm and the parchment came flying into the room. The father stared at it for a moment and then smiled proudly at his children, "Which one of you found it?" he asked them.

Lily raised her hand nervously, not quite sure what was going on. She saw surprise register on his face, but then he was smiling again, "Have you figured out how to-"

The end of his sentence was cut off by the look of fury his wife gave him.

"Am I to understand that you deliberately brought a dangerous artifact home from work with the express intention of it's being found by one of your children?" she thundered

"What? Ginny! It's not dangerous! It's not even from work!"

"Then where did it come from?" she demanded

"Fred and George gave it to me"

"What?" she asked, dumbstruck.

"Can we move this into the kitchen pleased?"

The three children watched as their parents quietly left the room for the kitchen, shutting the door behind them.

"Always knew they were bloody mental" said James.

"You've got some explaining to do Potter" said Ginny angrily as Harry lay the map down on the kitchen table.

He nodded soberly, tapped the wand against the parchment and whispered "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good"

Ginny gasped as threads of ink radiated their way out from the wand to slowly coalesce into a floor plan of Hogwarts, with little dots moving along the corridors and and title across the top; _Misers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, would like to present The Marauder's Map._

"It's a map of the old school," he explained, "An absolutely magnificent map, but I had no use for it and I couldn't give it to one of the kids and not the others so I put it somewhere they'd be bound to find it and figured first in, first served"

But Ginny didn't look any happier. "Harry, I saw writing on that parchment when Lily had it. It sunk right back into the page when I grabbed it. Have you forgo-" she trailed off, seeing her husband pale as he finally cottoned on to what she'd been thinking.

Before she could get another word out, she found herself pulled into a tight embrace.

"I'm so sorry Ginny" he whispered into her hair, "I should've known what you'd think, what with - " he broke off, "but you have to know that it's not like that at all. The maps not evil, it just insults people that try to read it without the password. You even know the people that made it"

He turned back to the map on the table. "Padfoot" he said, pointing at the name, "Sirius."

He moved it back to the first name, "Moony. Teddy's father"

His eyes misted as he moved to the last, "Prongs. My father"

Ginny looked at the page through the circle of Harry's arms, "What about Wormtail?"

Harry looked startled, "What? Wormtail? Well three of them were decent people at least" he muttered darkly, "but I promise you that map never put me in any danger"

Ginny raised an eyebrow.

"That wasn't of my own making" he amended. "May I please give the map back to our daughter now?"

She nodded reluctantly and he snatched the parchment off the table before hurrying back into the living room.

James, Albus and Lily waited for him, as perfectly confused as ever.

"May I have the parchment back please Daddy?" she asked.

He nodded, holding it out for her to take. She snatched it up eagerly and would have been gone if Harry hadn't taken her hand. "There's a lot more to this than meets the eye" he whispered, "See if you can figure it out. Use it well." he finished, kissing her forehead.

He watched on fondly as she fled back upstairs with her new treasure, imagining the mischief she'd get up to when she finally got to school. There'd be no holding her back then.

"Yep, like I said, completely mental" James muttered.


End file.
